Waxing Philosophical...

My wife called me and told me that the temperature was 45°F outside. With the sun shining, that made it warm enough that the bees were flying. That's a good thing - they need a potty break once in a while. The picture above is of the green hive, showing a couple of bees returning. It's hard to see the few live bees because of the dead ones on the front porch. During the cold weather, bees naturally die. So when it warms up, certain bees (called "undertaker bees") have the job of removing their dead sisters. Sometimes they take them all the way out, but other times (like this) they just dump them on the front porch.

This next picture is the brown hive, showing the bees coming and going through a top entrance (it's a notch in the inner cover, which provides an escape for the moist air; but also for bees if they so choose).

I share my beekeeping experience with a couple of guys at work (one of which reads this blog and gives me comments). My next-cubicle-neighbor is a very healthy eater (unlike me - *cough*BurgerKing*cough*) and we discuss food and related issues all the time. What does this have to do with waxing philosophical, you ask? Well I got to thinking about the whole concept of keeping bees. It's not like I can order them around and they faithfully do my bidding. It's more like me struggling to figure out how to maximize the hive's successes and minimize mistakes (one co-worker always chides me - "bees have been doing this themselves for thousands of years; your meddling is probably making it worse"). I am far from a tree-hugger environmentalist, but there is something about beekeeping which connects one with nature in a satisfying way.

I really am getting excited for Spring to come around, just to see if my bees have successfully negotiated their first New England winter. Things are looking good right now, assuming the queen(s) have survived. I guess it's sort of like how avid gardeners feel when they see the first buds blooming or plants coming up (I never showed much interest in gardening).

So here's hoping for a successful beekeeping year!!

Now for a couple more pictures (since my wife took them anyway). As always, you can click on any of my pictures for a close-up look: